{"id":7233,"date":"2020-11-27T10:04:26","date_gmt":"2020-11-27T10:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=7233"},"modified":"2024-03-16T14:45:41","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T14:45:41","slug":"duck-foot-sue","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/duck-foot-sue\/","title":{"rendered":"Duck Foot Sue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>Slue Foot Sue
Tangle Foot Sue
She was a funny old guy<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1884<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Harry Bennett<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN9553<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>GW Hunter George Foster<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Source Singers<\/strong>
Cook, Harry (Crutter) 1938\/39 England : Suffolk
Abbott, O.J. 1958 Canada : Quebec
unknown 1960 England : Sussex
Larner, Sam 1958-60 England : Norfolk
Webb, Mrs. Walter 1962 Canada : Ontario
Windsor, Elizabeth 1969 USA
Vickers, Emma 1969 England : Lancashire
Knights, Jimmy 1974 England : Suffolk
Large, Vic \/ Large, Dulcie 1980s Australia : : Coolah
Ling, Ruby 1975-80 England
Burchell, Morrie no date Australia : Mudgee
Modern performances<\/strong>
Jon Boden
John Spiers<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Lyrics from 1884 Sheet Music<\/strong>\n\nOh! listen for a while,\nAnd I will tell to you,\nIt's about a girl I had,\nHer name was Duck Foot Sue;\nShe was gentle and divine \nLong waisted in her feet,\nAnd her heel stuck out behind\nLike an 18 carat beet\n\nSo now I'll sing to you\nOf the girl I loved so true\nShe was chief engineer \nIn the white shirt laundry\nOut in the back yard view\nHer beauty was all she had \nWith a mouth like a soft shell crab\nShe'd an India rubber lip \nLike a rudder of a ship\nAnd I tell you she was bad<\/em>\n\nShe was not very fat \nNor was she very thin\nFor she looked when she was dressed \nLike a straw in a barrel of gin\nI took her to a hall, \nThe \"Fat Man's Social Club\"\nAnd it took me half a sov\nTo settle for her grub\n\nHer face was the colour of a ham\nShe had ears like a Japanese fan\nShe could talk for an hour\nWith a forty horse power\nShe'd a voice like a catamaran\nHer hair was an indigo blue\nShe was as graceful as a Kangaroo\nYou ought to see her tussle \nWith a patent leather bussel\nShe could whistle like a steam boat too\n\nWhen first she went away, \nIt almost took my breath, \nThere's one thing I am sure, \nShe'll never starve to death\nIf I had married her \nI'd have always been afraid \nOf being shot or scalped\nBy the mother-in-law brigade\n\nFor she was a funny old guy\nShe had a double barrel squint in her eye\nShe'd a number ten feet \nThey would cover up the street\nShe'd a mouth like a crack in a pie\nShe had a cheerful cemetery laugh\nShe had a head like an excellent calf\nShe's a iron-clad clipper \nBuilt gun boat brig\nWith a ball on her main top gaff\n<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
This rather surreal song was written in the 1870s or early 1880s and has survived in various forms in the traditional music of the English-speaking world . There are versions sung in the UK, Canada , the USA and Australia .  The title is usually Duck Foot Sue <\/em>, but does vary sometimes – its also known as Slue Foot Sue <\/em>. At the risk of ruining the mystery, the term “duck-foot” comes from “Dutch foot” a bowlegged style of furniture leg .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The song was written by Harry Bennett, but some sources also credit GW Hunter, the performer most associated with it in the Halls. It was apparently first published as sheet music in 1884, but it was being performed before this, at least as early as 1883. It was a popular piece amongst amateur singers, and there are multiple records of it being sung in the UK in smoking concerts, penny readings and the like, between 1883 and the end of the century. It was also popular in America in the 1880s, and it appeared in print in an Americanised form in Wehman’s Collection of Songs No.12 (1886) available at the excellent website traditionalmusic.co.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The song started being recorded in the repertoire of traditional singers in the late 1930s. The subsequent story of the song in UK traditional music is told on the excellent Mainly Norfolk site<\/a><\/strong>. In the States it was recorded in the late 1920s by The Bob Miller Trio <\/em>and in the 1930s by The Buckeye Boys<\/em>. I don’t have information about whether it was being recorded or performed in Australia at that time….<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Returning to its Music Hall origins,  Kilgarriff lists the song as appearing both in the repertoire of GW Hunter and George Foster (1864 \u2013 1946). Foster was an actor and performer in the 1880s, but by 1890 he was established as an artiste’s agent and seems to have stopped performing.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Harry Bennett (dates unknown), credited as the writer, is not a well-known figure. His name first appears in accounts of the Halls in September 1883 as manager of Theatre Royal, Oldbury in the West Midlands. Later reports have him, singing with a “fair voice” at the Philharmonic Hall Cardiff,  appearing as a “character comedian” at the L. and N.W. Music Hall, Salford; and as an “eccentric comedian” in Portsmouth<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GW Hunter (1851-1936) was a big star of the London stage: billed as The Quintessence of Humour<\/em>, he performed regularly all over the capital in the last 20 years the 19th century. He wrote many of his own songs and his hits included Riding on Top of an Omnibus<\/em>, and McGilligan’s Wedding<\/em>. In 1887 this review appeared of his performance in a benefit for Chairman of The Cambridge Music Hall:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The Era, July 27 1887<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
He toured extensively in New Zealand and Australia in the early years of the 20th century , and this may explain how his songs became established there . In his later life he became widely known and respected in the conjuring world as a designer of close-up magic tricks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John Spiers sings it in auspicious surroundings:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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